May 21 Thu
Why is Christ presented as the Lamb of God?
In the Mass, the entire people of God is united around the altar. Yet the most important element there is Our Lord, who is really present; He keeps us together in this unity.
But the Church is not brought into being only through the union of people, through the experience of brotherhood to which the Eucharistic banquet gives rise. The Church is brought into being when, in that fraternal union and communion, we celebrate the sacrifice of the cross of Christ, when we proclaim “the Lord’s death until he comes,” and also later, when, we approach as a community the table of the Lord, to be nourished there, in a sacramental manner, by the fruits of the holy sacrifice of Jesus.
The Commingling, the placing of a fragment of the consecrated host into the chalice, may symbolize the re-union of Christ’s body and soul as in his resurrection. Also, it may help to show clearly the unity and indivisibility of the body and blood of Jesus Christ.
During the breaking of the bread and the commingling, the Agnus Dei is sung or said by all:
Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world: Have mercy on us.
Christ is shown not only to be present, but also as the Victim.
The figure of the “Lamb of God” helps us to enkindle our devotion before Communion. The Lamb wipes out our sins through his obedience to God’s will:
Innocent, he never opened his mouth,
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter house,
like a sheep that is dumb before its shearers.
Let us make up with a great longing to atone for our sins and be cleansed for our lack of innocence.
But this Lamb was also foreshadowed by the paschal lamb the Jews sacrificed on the eve of their departure from their slavery in Egypt.
The expression of John the Baptist reminds us of the lamb with which the Jews celebrated the Passover every year. Saint John the Evangelist, who was at the foot of the cross, observed that Jesus’ legs were not broken as in the case of the two thieves. We find in this detail some similarity with that prescription of God for the paschal lamb, “You must not break any bone of it.”
Through Judas’s treason, Jesus is bought with silver coins coming from the alms destined to buy the lambs for the daily sacrifices, and dies at the hour in which the paschal lamb used to be sacrificed in the Temple.
Finally, the Agnus Dei celebrates the wedding of the Lamb with his bride, the Church, in peace and unity, as is described in the Apocalypse. There, on the altar, the Lamb lies alive, but as if slain.
Twenty-four elders are around the Lamb. They are clothed in white robes and crowned with gold. Thousands of angels hymn the sacrifice and triumph of the Lamb. Certainly, each Mass is only a prelude and a token of the future adoration of the Lamb in eternity.